Culture
Breathing-Technique Videos Promising to Make Small Drifted Creatures 'Visible' Spread Among Students; TDA: 'No Scientific Basis'
Breathing-technique videos claiming to make small drifted creatures 'visible' have become a trend among the city's middle and high school students. On the 23rd, the TDA reiterated its standard position: 'The conditions under which permeation sensitivity emerges remain unexplained, and so-called development methods have no scientific basis.'
A Reporter Tried the Viral Breathing Method for a Month — 'Didn't See Anything, But Mornings Felt Good'
A first-person feature: this reporter spent a month actually trying one of the breathing-method videos popular among middle and high schoolers, which claim practitioners will begin to 'see' small drift creatures. Nothing ever became visible — but there was an unexpected side effect.
Who Makes the Window Rooms' Teacups? A Third-Generation Potter in Tokoname — 'The Only Cups Whose Breakage Gets Reported Back'
The teacups that sit in the Dimensional Survey Division's window rooms — frequent props in the window keepers' column, 'Window Keeper's Log' — are made by Shuzo Sakakibara, 59, a third-generation potter in Tokoname, this paper has learned through interviews. He supplies the same design to all five windows, and jokes, "These are the only cups I make where I even hear back when one chips or breaks."
People of the Shore (10): A Way of Standing That Carries Something Forward — Asahi Shikata, 35
Following the previously reported formal recognition of second-generation witnesses for the Shore Crossing rite, announced on the 28th, we visited Asahi Shikata, 35, a second-generation Drifter considering the certification course. The tenth installment of 'People of the Shore' looks at the moment of institutional change not from the first-generation side, as in the ninth installment's portrait of witness Hajime Ushioda, 73, but from the second generation now stepping toward the role.
Twenty Years Reading Tides, Now Reading the Sky — a Former 'Tide Reader' Turns Weather Forecaster
Half a year has passed since Shioji Hatano, 52, who spent nearly two decades as a 'tide reader' for the Sunamachi Rowing Club in tide rowing competitions, took over a weather segment on Bayside Television's (BTV) morning news program. From reading tides to set a race's start time, to reading tomorrow's sky — behind what looks like an unlikely career change lies a connection to the TDA's Forecast Division.
'We're Keeping This Safe' — The Words That Fill the Guestbook for Unclaimed Drift Objects
The single child's shoe previously reported as Lineage 122, registered on Sept. 21, is on temporary display this week — while it awaits full appraisal — in a corner of the municipal Drift Object Museum's exhibit, 'Luggage Whose Owner Never Comes.' The household items of Lineage 31, running from a tricycle through a pot, a wooden box, a boot, and now this shoe, have come to be called around town 'the lineage with a strong sense of everyday life,' or simply 'the neighboring world.' Facing objects whose owners will never step forward, visitors tend to write down words that fall into a surprisingly consistent pattern.
People of the Shore (9): How Many More Years Can I Stand as Witness? — Hajime Ushioda, 73
Hajime Ushioda, 73, a first-generation drift settler who has served as a Shore Crossing witness for nearly forty years, is one of the people the city's proposed witness registry is meant to help. He is among the figure, previously reported, of roughly a hundred-odd first-generation settlers still physically able to serve, out of some 480 citywide. The ninth installment of our series looks at the registry debate from inside the ritual itself.
Karin Kokonoe's Next Book, "Outside the Fog": Her 61st Interview on the Bay Ninefold Fog
It emerged on Sept. 11 that independent researcher Karin Kokonoe, 52, has reached her 61st interview for a forthcoming book centered on the Bay Ninefold Fog, this time speaking with Kazuko Sakota, 70, secretary of the families' association. Long ignored by academia, Kokonoe says the new book will focus not on what happened inside the fog, but on how people waited outside it.
People of the Shore (8): The Same Song, Heard From a Care-Home TV — Taki Fukaura, 88
Taki Fukaura, 88, was one of the 18 first-generation settlers unable to attend the Arrival Remembrance Day ceremony in person, watching the relay instead with staff and fellow residents at a bayside care home. Though the meaning of the lyrics never reached her, she says she still knew it was 'the same song.' Three days after the ceremony, this paper visited her there.
People of the Shore (7): At 101, Tane Kishitani Finally Hears It for Real
At noon on September 7 at Kishihama Park, 101-year-old Tane Kishitani, true to her word that she would simply be "the one who listens," sat with her eyes closed and did not move once during the lullaby. It was the first time in 51 years that the song she once heard as a child in a kitchen was sung in public.
The Night Before: Transcriber Kishiura Ushio Checks Her Score One Last Time
Kishiura Ushio, 74, the music teacher who has spent much of her life transcribing the Shore Lullaby, gave the performance score one last check at her community hall on the evening of the 6th. The song's thirteen verses remain officially "undeciphered," and she is holding firm on her decision not to distribute a translation. A first-generation drift settler herself, previously profiled in this paper's "People of the Shore" series, Kishiura spoke about the night before the ceremony.
Before the Shore Lullaby's Debut, a Final Rehearsal — 37 Voices, Still Not Told What the Words Mean
A final joint rehearsal for the Shore Lullaby, set to receive its first public performance at Sunday's Arrival Remembrance Day ceremony, was held on the 5th at the Bay Community Hall. The 37-member choir, centered on students from Bay Third Middle School, ran through the piece under the transcriber, music teacher Kishiura Ushio, 74, who continued coaching by ear rather than by written translation, as previously reported. Organizers reconfirmed that the lyrics' meaning will not be read aloud at the ceremony.
People of the Shore (6): Tane Kishitani, 101 — "This year, I'm the one who listens"
Among the 121 first-generation drift settlers invited to the September 7 Arrival Remembrance Day ceremony, the oldest is 101-year-old Tane Kishitani, who was already 50 when she arrived in 1975. Living with her second-generation grandson's family in a Fukagawa row house, she spoke about fifty-two years, and what the ceremony means to her now.
Seven o'clock, no signal given: first "unified lighting" of Autumn Window Day
On the night of Sept. 2 — Autumn Window Day, the bay area's newest custom — the Shiomibashi shopping street, its reputed birthplace, held its first "unified lighting." Which is to say: no signal, no announcement. At "seven, more or less," each shop set a light in its own window.
Thirty-six breaths, thirty-one nights: a reporter tries "Moon-Ring Breathing"
"You will start to see the small drifted creatures." That is the claim behind Moon-Ring Breathing, a breathing method now circulating among junior high and high school students in video circles. There is a paid course: 38,000 yen. Staying strictly within what can be tried for free, this 45-year-old reporter practiced it every night for the 31 nights of August. The conclusion first: I saw nothing. That does not mean there was nothing to report.
A second lighting this year: bay district readies its first "Autumn Window Day"
Ahead of Autumn Window Day on Sept. 2, shops along the Shiomibashi shopping street — the custom's reputed birthplace — spent the 1st arranging lights on their window sills. This is the first year the autumn observance has been promoted widely, alongside the original Window Day of July 2. The street plans a "unified lighting" at 7 p.m.
"Lullaby of the Shore": the last joint rehearsal before the day
The last joint rehearsal for the "Lullaby of the Shore" — to be sung in public for the first time on Drift Memorial Day, Sept. 7 — was held on Aug. 30 at a community hall in Fukagawa. Twenty-eight members of the city's junior-high choir sang; Ushio Kishiura, 74, the first-generation Drifter and music teacher who transcribed the song, sat in.
"The Window of 1975" hits its 20th printing
Independent researcher Karin Kokonoe's book "The Window of 1975" has passed its 20th printing. Her writing, which searches for "meaning" in the origin of the Yuragi, continues to be ignored by academia, but three years after publication its readership keeps growing.
"Lullaby of the Shore" nears first public performance
"The Shore Lullaby," transcribed into notation for the first time in half a century, will be sung in public for the first time at the September 7 Arrival Remembrance Day gathering. On the 29th, a junior-high choir of largely half-Drifter students held a final rehearsal, inviting Ushio Kishiura, 74, who transcribed the song.
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Round 10 tickets now on sale.